Need minor credit boost for first home

Question

Evening all, First post on the forums. I hope this is not in the wrong section as I was not sure whether to post in the mortgage section or the credit repair section. Kind of a long story but here it goes. My GF and I (23 and 25) are preparing to buy our first home. We do not have much money to put down, so we are looking into the 100% Financing option from Navy Federal (We have already been pre-approved for an FHA loan through Navy Federal, but would like to go for the 100% Financing as this program requires no PMI). However, the limit for the tier 1 interest rates for this program is 720+. The tier 2 interest rates would give us about the same monthly payments as the FHA, so I figure going for the tier 1 rates is the only option for a lower payment. My GF has credit scores between 740-760, but I am sitting at 695 (Eq), 697 (Ex) and 718 (TU). I was lower back in April (660ish), but since then I have paid off ALL credit card debt (was previously around 80% utilization) and I got a negative remark removed from my account that did not belong to me. However, I still have student loans that I am repaying, one of which belongs to Campus Partners. Unfortunately, last year I ran into medical problems on two occassions (related, but occurred at different times of the year) and the quarterly payment for my student loan totally slipped my mind (I wish it had been monthly instead of quarterly). Thus, I have a 30 day late for Campus Partners from February 2014 and a 60 day late from Nov/Dec, which I then paid off the loan in full. I have sent Goodwill Letters (multiples) to Campus Partners (As well as emailed the letter to the Presdient and Financial CEO) with the same response everytime saying they MUST report all data (The most recent response today had multiple portions bolded--I get the feeling they are getting annoyed by me :-P). I am going to continue sending in letters with the hopes that they have a change of heart (unlikely), but am looking for any way to improve my credit 20-25 points so that we may qualify for the mortgage program we desire. My AAoA is not great (3.5 years roughly), but I have no credit card utilization, and just those 2 late payments on my credit. My father offered to put me on one of his credit cards as an authorized user, but I do not know if this will work or if the mortgage lender will accept it in my credit report (will they throw it out for the mortgage loan?). Will just paying bills on time and using/paying off my CC every month increase my credit in a reasonable time, or will this be a very slow process with those late payments tarnishing me? If anyone has any advice to improve my credit by roughly 20 points quickly, it would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

MProphet90 wrote:
Thank you both for the replies. It is appreciated. Unfortunately Marlena my GF does not have the salary to qualify on her own while allowing us to buy a decent home (living in Maryland where the homes are priced ridiculously). Revelate, Do you have a link or any information on how to go about removing a tradeline? I have several other student loans so I believe if I was to remove the one with the late payments it would only improve my credit even though I am losing a tradeline. The only response I receive to my GW letters is that they are required to report all information, so not sure how open they would be to removing the tradeline completely :-/ Does anyone know how being an authorized user on a CC affects your mortgage status? Will a bank deny you if they see this or just factor that account out of your credit report? I know Navy Federal uses your standard mortgage score versions (posted in the sticky thread in these forums) so I am not sure how these versions reflect authorized user data.Won't deny you for having an AU, might ask you to remove it worst case but that's becoming really rare from some reports here.  I don't think anyone really cares anymore if you can jump through the rest of the hoops required to get a mortgage, if you pass the credit score sniff test you'll be OK is my read of the situation.  Might try to factor it out but that's sort of impossible and would be all sorts of sticky, with your own credit history I don't think anyone would even blink.  I would suggest both are irrelevant if you're trying to clear a FICO hurdle. AU in general only helps if:1) It changes your utilization calculation in a good way (high limit, $0 balance ideal)2) It improves your AAOA by being longer than your other tradelines (or the average of them to be specific, earlier open date the better) - not sure that's the case here.3) Of course, needs to be a pristine tradeline If you think it'll help in your situation meeting those critera, I'd add it personally.  AU's will be counted under all of the mortgage trifecta so there's no problem on that count. Regarding addressing the 60 day late, hit the Rebuilding forum as the experts live there and I'm not one of them on that subject; sometimes OC's have been known to just whack the whole tradeline, what I was trying to get across was any way you can get that off, just take it, even if it comes up with a compromise of they'll delete the account record if you stop bothering them rather than just nullifying the lates.